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The undiscovered country: ageing and dementia on stage

Seventeen years after winning the Patrick White Playwrights Award, Patricia Cornelius’ ‘Do Not Go Gentle’ finally has its mainstage debut.

26 May 2023 13:10

Richard Watts

Performing Arts

The STC’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle’ in rehearsal. Photo: Prudence Upton.

Despite winning the Sydney Theatre Company’s (STC) Patrick White Playwrights Award in 2006 for Do Not Go Gentle – alongside numerous other awards both nationally and internationally – Patricia Cornelius has not had a single play staged by the STC… until now.

Why then, has it taken so long for this poetic and memorable meditation on ageing, dementia and the final voyage into Shakespeare’s ‘undiscovered country’ to receive a mainstage production?

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts